Download or read book The Demise of Norse Religion written by Olof Sundqvist and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2023-12-18 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When describing the transition from Old Norse religion to Christianity in recent studies, the concept of "Christianization" is often applied. To a large extent this historiography focuses on the outcome of the encounter, namely the description of early Medieval Christianity and the new Christian society. The purpose of the present study is to concentrate more exclusively on the Old Norse religion during this period of change and to analyze the processes behind its disappearance on an official level of the society. More specifically this study concentrates on the role of Viking kings and indigenous agency in the winding up of the old religion. An actor-oriented perspective will thus be established, which focuses on the actions, methods and strategies applied by the early Christian Viking kings when dismantling the religious tradition that had previously formed their lives. In addition, the resistance that some pagan chieftains offered against these Christian kings is discussed as well as the question why they defended the old religious tradition.
Download or read book Old Norse Religion in Long term Perspectives written by Anders Andrén and published by Nordic Academic Press. This book was released on 2006-01-01 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The study of Old Norse Religion is a truly multidisciplinary and international field of research. The rituals, myths and narratives of pre-Christian Scandinavia are investigated and interpreted by archaeologists, historians, art historians, historians of religion as well as scholars of literature, onomastics and Scandinavian studies. For obvious reasons, these studies belong to the main curricula in Scandinavia but are also carried out at many other universities in Europe, the United States and Australia a fact that is evident to any reader of this book. In order to bring this broad and varied field of research together, an international conference on Old Norse religion was held in Lund in June 2004. About two hundred delegates from more than fifteen countries took part. The intention was to gather researchers to encourage and improve scholarly exchange and dialogue, and Old Norse religion in long-term perspectives presents a selection of the proceedings from that conference. The 75 contributions elucidate topics such as worldview and cosmology, ritual and religious practice, myth and memory as well as the reception and present-day use of Old Norse religion. The main editors of this volume have directed the multidisciplinary research project Roads to Midgard since 2000. The project is based at Lund University and funded by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation.
Download or read book The Study of Religion in Sweden written by Henrik Bogdan and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2024-03-07 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a comprehensive examination of the study of religions in Sweden, from the early twentieth century to the present and shows how the intersection of national and social forces shape the study of religion in specific countries and contexts. It traces the establishment of the study of religions as an integrated part of Higher Education in Sweden and it critically examines the development of the most significant disciplines, themes and questions that form Religious Studies in Sweden. Demonstrating the interconnection between nationality and the formation of the academic study of religion, the book explores how Sweden is often described as the most secularised country in the world, yet the study of religions in Sweden has a long, rich, and diverse history. The book emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of the study of religions, and bring together the voices of 30 scholars.
Download or read book Speaker and Authority in Old Norse Wisdom Poetry written by Brittany Erin Schorn and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2017-07-10 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While there is a long tradition of research into eddic poetry, including the poems classed as wisdom literature, much of this has approached the subject either as a primarily philological commentary or has addressed literary and thematic topics of individual or small groups of poems. This book offers a wide-ranging enquiry into the defining features of Old Norse wisdom, including the representation of wisdom in texts which cross traditional generic boundaries. It builds on recent advances in understanding of pre-Christian religion in Scandinavia, and calls on comparative and supporting work from several different disciplinary backgrounds (including literary theory, other medieval literatures and anthropology). Speaker and Authority interrogates important questions about the concept of knowledge, as well as its role in medieval Scandinavian society and its broader European cultural context.
Download or read book Women and Weapons in the Viking World written by Leszek Gardela and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2021-11-30 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Viking Age (c. 750–1050 AD) is conventionally seen as a tumultuous time when hordes of fierce warriors from Scandinavia wreaked havoc across the European continent and when Norse merchants travelled to distant corners of the world in pursuit of slaves, silver, and exotic commodities. Until relatively recently, archaeologists and textual scholars had the tendency to weave a largely male-dominated image of this pivotal period in world history, dismissing or substantially downplaying women's roles in Norse society. Today, however, there is ample evidence to suggest that many of the most spectacular achievements of Viking Age Scandinavians - for instance in craftsmanship, exploration, cross-cultural trade, warfare and other spheres of life - would not have been possible without the active involvement of women. Extant textual sources as well as the perpetually expanding corpus of archaeological evidence thus demonstrate unequivocally that both within the walls of the household and in the wider public arena women’s voices were heard, respected and followed. This pioneering and lavishly illustrated monograph provides an in-depth exploration of women's associations with the martial sphere of life in the Viking Age. The multifarious motivations and circumstances that led women to engage in armed conflict or other activities whereby weapons served as potent symbols of prestige and empowerment are illuminated and interpreted through an interdisciplinary approach to medieval literature and archaeological evidence from Scandinavia and the wider Viking world. Additional cross-cultural excursions into the lives and legends of female warriors in other past and present cultural milieus - from the Asiatic steppes to the savannas of Africa and European battlefields - lead to a nuanced understanding of the idea of the armed woman and its embodiments in Norse literature, myth and archaeological reality.
Download or read book The Routledge Handbook of Gender Archaeology written by Marianne Moen and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-12-02 with total page 602 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume presents a comprehensive overview of gender archaeology, both theory and practice, and contributes a substantial and definitive reference work by bringing together state-of-the-art research, theoretical overviews, and the latest debates in the field. Responding to the shifts in the theoretical landscape and the societal and political frameworks within which we produce our knowledge, chapters create both a solid theoretical baseline which help readers grasp the significance of gender in archaeology as well as offer perspectives on how to engender produced knowledge about the past. In line with recent focus on the shortcomings of gender and archaeological representation, chapters also detangle academic discourse and popular representations in order to present novel ways of successfully negotiating the pitfalls of gendered ideas about past behaviours. By encouraging novel ways of integrating theoretical perspectives with scrutiny of gender stereotypes, original empirical examinations of identity markers and behaviours, and re-examinations of static representations of identities through new lenses, such as intersectional perspectives, personhood, and materiality debates, the volume is theoretically rich and will simultaneously provide a necessary benchmark for future archaeological discourses. Finally, it will incorporate perspectives from researchers with diverse backgrounds and viewpoints to provide a truly comprehensive overview. It will not shy away from engaging with politically contentious issues surrounding knowledge production but will include perspectives from researchers whose focus is less on feminist critiques and more on gender and identities. Thus, the volume bridges the two most prominent directions currently discernible within the focus area, namely, feminist re-examinations on the one hand and research focused more on bodily practice and gendered experiences on the other. The Routledge Handbook of Gender Archaeology is an invaluable resource for students and researchers in gender archaeology as well as gender studies more widely.
Download or read book The History of Human Marriage written by Edward Westermarck and published by . This book was released on 1922 with total page 616 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The End of the World in Scandinavian Mythology written by Anders Hultgård and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-10-08 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A myth about the end of the world, the Ragnarok, was told among Viking Age Scandinavians. It is here reconsidered against a comparative background. The signs of the end, the final battle, the destruction and renewal of the world are the main themes distinguished. The myth was handed down in a Christian medieval context and the problem of Christian influence is thoroughly discussed. Particular attention is given to the Old Norse homilies as instruments of conveying Christian teachings to both the elites and the common people. The comparative framework is set up by traditions on the end of the world in early Judaism, Christianity, Islam, the Graeco-Roman world, Celtic Europe as well as ancient Iran and India. The geographical area covered by these traditions formed a network of cultural contacts providing possibilities of various influences. These texts are studied in their own right to avoid superficial paralleling. The analogies with Iranian traditions are striking and include the idea of the cosmic tree, the role of number 'nine', and the myth of the heavenly warriors"--
Download or read book The History of human marriage v 2 written by Edward Westermarck and published by . This book was released on 1922 with total page 616 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Secular Schooling in the Long Twentieth Century written by Merethe Roos and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2024-09-23 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The twentieth-century process of secularization does not mean that institutional church and Christian ideas were irrelevant for twentieth-century societal projects – such as the introduction of democracy, the improvement of school and education, the framing of national identities – or in the establishment of welfare-states. On the contrary, this publication is built on the presupposition that secularization runs parallell with the sacralization of the state. It can be argued that Christianity has been decisive for how the modern European society evolved in the twentieth century, e.g. concerning how Christian history and Christian values were a part of the new national and social imaginary where re-enchantment and re-sacralization of the state were central elements. In this publication, the aim is to highlight the role of Christianity in the twentieth- and twentyfirst-century welfare-state modernization process with the focus on schooling and education. A central perspective is the impact of cultural Protestantism during the twentieth century. The publication is comparative and will investigate education in Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands via chapters on curriculums, textbooks, politicians, and political debates.
Download or read book The Science of Folk Lore written by Alexander Haggerty Krappe and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-12-14 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1930, this volume aimed to provide an overview of folk-lore which contrasted with the Anthropological school. Consciously working in the legacy of Savigny and the Brothers Grimm, the author explored the unrecorded traditions found within popular fiction, custom, belief, magic and ritual, attempting a reconstruction of humanity’s spiritual history through popular rather than elite voices. The work was intended to prove useful to scholars of related fields to folk-lore, with hopes of eventual interdisciplinarity.
Download or read book Gods and Humans in Medieval Scandinavia written by Jonas Wellendorf and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-04-12 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study shows some of the ways in which medieval Scandinavians received and re-interpreted pre-Christian religion.
Download or read book Human Sacrifice and Value written by Sean O'Neill and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-10-26 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The present volume was made possible by the Norwegian Research Council’s generous funding of the Human Sacrifice and Value project (FRIPROHUMSAM 275947). It explores concepts of human sacrifice. This volume explores concepts of human sacrifice, focusing on its value – or multiplicity of values – in relative cultural and temporal terms, whether sacrifice is expressed in actual killings, in ideas revolving around ritualized, sanctioned or sanctified violence or loss, or in transformed and (often sublimated) undertakings. Bridging a wide variety of interdisciplinary perspectives, it analyses a spectrum of sacrificial logics and actions, daring us to rethink the scholarship of sacrifice by considering the oft hidden, subliminal and even paradoxical values and motivations that underlie sacrificial acts. The chapters give needed attention to pivotal questions in studies of sacrifice and ritualized violence – such as how we might employ new approaches to the existing evidence or revise long-debated theories about what exactly ‘human sacrifice’ is or might be, or why human sacrifice seems to emerge so often and so easily in human social experience across time and in vastly different cultures and historical contexts. Thus, the volume will strike a chord with scholars of sociology, anthropology, archaeology, history, religious studies, political science and economics –wherever interest is focused on critically rethinking questions of sacred and sanctified human violence, and the values that make it what it is.
Download or read book The History of human marriage v 3 written by Edward Westermarck and published by . This book was released on 1922 with total page 616 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book In the Darkest of Days written by Matthew J. Walsh and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2024-02-29 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book collects recent works on the subjects of sacrificial offerings, ritualized violence and the relative values thereof in the contexts of Scandinavian prehistory from the Neolithic to the Viking era. The volume builds on a workshop hosted at the National Museum of Denmark in 2018 which inaugurated the beginning of the research project ‘Human Sacrifice and Value: The limits of sacred violence’ and was supported by the Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo. The volume brings together research and perspectives that attempt to go beyond the who, what and where of most archaeological and anthropological investigations of sacrificial violence to address both the underlying and explicit forms of value associated with such events. The volume re-opens investigations into notions of value relating to diverse evidence and suggested evidence for human sacrifice and related ritualized violence. It covers a broad spectrum of issues relating to novel interpretations of the existing archaeological materials, but with a focus on the study of value and value dynamics in these diverse ritual contexts, engaging in questions of identity, cosmology, economics and social relations. Cases span from the Scandinavian Late Neolithic and Nordic Bronze Age, through to the well-known wetland deposits and bog bodies of the Iron Age, to Viking era executions, ‘deviant’ burials and contemporaneous double/multiple graves, exploring the implications for the transformation of sacrificial practices across Scandinavian prehistory. Each contribution attempts to untangle the myriad forms of value at play in different incarnations of human offerings, and provide insights into how those values were expressed, e.g., in the selection and treatment of victims in relation to their status, personhood, identity and life-history.
Download or read book Tracing Old Norse Cosmology written by Anders Andrén and published by Nordic Academic Press. This book was released on 2015-01-01 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The study of Old Norse religion is a truly multidisciplinary and international field of research. The rituals, myths, and narratives of pre-Christian Scandinavia have been studied and interpreted in detail relying mainly on Christian Icelandic literature from the Middle Ages. Here, Anders Andrén offers a long-term perspective on Old Norse cosmology and argues that the fundamental ideas of an ordered universe, time, and space in Old Norse religion can be studied in a dialogue between archaeology and the Icelandic narrative tradition. Ideas about the world tree, middle earth, and the sun can be traced in images and material culture from Scandinavian prehistory. By combining the prehistoric representations with the later written record the author presents a fresh and nuanced study of the fascinating Old Norse world.
Download or read book Old Norse Folklore written by Stephen A. Mitchell and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2023-12-15 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The medieval northern world consisted of a vast and culturally diverse region both geographically, from roughly Greenland to Novgorod and culturally, as one of the last areas of Europe to be converted to Christianity. Old Norse Folklore explores the complexities of thisfascinating world in case studies and theoretical essays that connect orality and performance theory to memory studies, and myths relating to pre-Christian Nordic religion to innovations within late medieval pilgrimage song culture. Old Norse Folklore provides critical new perspectives on the Old Norse world, some of which appear in this volume for the first time in English. Stephen A. Mitchell presents emerging methodologies by analyzing Old Norse materials to offer a better understandings ofunderstanding of Old Norse materials. He examines, interprets, and re-interprets the medieval data bequeathed to us by posterity—myths, legends, riddles, charms, court culture, conversion narratives, landscapes, and mindscapes—targeting largely overlooked, yet important sources of cultural insights.
